Warriors: Return of the Breeze Book 2- The Betrayal

Chapter 5

        Mintfeather woke to cry from Daisy, "Squirrelflight has started her kitting!" Mintpaw poked her head out of the den and saw Jayfeather rushing over to nursery with a bundle of herbs in his jaws. New kits were always good for the clan, but Mintfeather couldn't help thinking if they were going to make it through leaf-bare. The trees were dropping their leaves and the air was getting colder. A frosty sunrise lighted the tops of the trees as it slowly rose higher. I might as well see if I can join a patrol.

        She padded into the clearing, were a few cats had already gathered, woken by the news of Squirrelflight's kitting. Dovewing was among them, and Mintfeather quickly joined her former mentor.

        "Hey Mintfeather, Lionblaze wants us to join the dawn patrol." Mintfeather nodded. My first patrol as a warrior!

        She followed Dovewing to were Blossomfall and Mousewhisker were waiting. The patrol padded out of camp, and headed to the ShadowClan border. Mintfeather shivered, as a gust of cold wind pierced through her fur, as sharp as claws. She looked up and saw a few white flakes, slowly drifting towards the ground. What's that? Is it dangerous? She saw the others looking up, but they didn't seem to be concerned.

        "Snow already? It's still leaf-fall!" Blossomfall mewed in suprised.

        "Let's hurry up before my paws freeze off!" Mousewhisker exclaimed, "We should split up to get this done faster." The Dovewing and Blossomfall agreed, but Mintfeather was still looking up in amazement at the snow, when one landed on her nose. It tickled her nose, and she sneezed. The others purred in amusement, and Mintfeather felt her pelt getting hot in embarrassment.

        "Let's split up." She quickly said. The other nodded, and Mousewhisker told them where to patrol.

        "Dovewing and Mintfeather, patrol from here to the lake. Blossomfall, you can take from here to the beginning of the clearing, and I'll do the rest."

        "See you at camp!" Blossomfall called as she started towards the area she was to patrol. Mousewhisker went to patrol his area, and Dovewing and Mintfeather started patrolling their area.

***

        When they got back to camp, Blossomfall was talking to Lionblaze. "Everything was good, but when I got to the clearing, there was ShadowClan scent over our border. I followed it, but I soon lost the trail in all the twoleg scent." Lionblaze nodded then noticed Dovewing and Mintfeather.

        "Did you find anything?"

        "No, Everything was normal." Dovewing told him. "Mousewhisker might have found something though, he was patrolling the rest of the border."

        Lionblaze thought for a minute, then looked at Mintfeather. "Mintfeather, I want you to take Blossomfall, Foxleap, and Ivypool to go find Mousewhisker. He should be back back by now, so he might have ran into trouble." Mintfeather nodded, and she and Blossomfall raced over to were Ivypool and Foxleap were sharing a squirrel, leftover from the last nights meal.

        In a moment, all three cats were bounding over to her. No words were said as they Mintfeather lead her patrol to the clearing between ThunderClan and ShadowClan territory. "Everyone, try to find Mousewhisker, If he ran into a patrol or that ShadowClan scent, he could be in trouble."

        The others nodded and and began scenting the air for Mousewhisker's scent. They split up to cover more ground, and it wasn't long before Foxleap found the scent. The trail lead along the border. Suddenly Mintfeather smelled blood. The others must have smelled it too, because he saw their eyes widen in fear. What happened to Mousewhisker?

        They walked faster, afraid of might have happened. They came across a bush, were Mousewhisker's scent, mixed with the scent of blood, was overpowering. Mintfeather poked her nose under the bush. She saw a gray and white body, laying motionless on the ground. She poked him with her nose, and found him cold. She stumbled backwards in surprise.

        "Mousewhisker." She looked to the others, "He's dead."